Faculty and Staff Profiles

The Literacy Studies Faculty is comprised of researchers focused on researching literacy and literacy education in order to understand and contribute to the literacy knowledge of international, national, state, and local literacy education. Each faculty member focuses on specific areas of literacy in their research, teaching, and outreach.

Julie Pennington, Ph. D.

Professor & director of the Center for Learning & Literacy

Julie Pennington is a professor of literacy studies in the College of Education and director of the Center for Learning and Literacy. She has focused on the areas of literacy and diversity throughout her career as a classroom teacher and literacy intervention teacher for fourteen years and currently as a teacher educator and researcher. Her research interests include the use of autoethnography in teacher education and pursuing questions related to how teachers approach literacy instruction in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. She is the author of two books, The Colonization of Literacy Education, Educating for Critical Democratic Literacy, and several articles and book chapters focused on issues related to literacy instruction in diverse settings.

Diane Barone is a foundation professor of literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno. She became a member of The Reading Hall of Fame in 2015. Currently she is serving as President of the International Literacy Association. Her research focuses on young children's literacy development and instruction in high poverty schools. She has conducted two longitudinal studies of literacy development: one, a four-year study of children prenatally exposed to crack/cocaine and two, a seven-year study of children, predominantly English Language Learners, in a high-poverty school. She has had articles published in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, Elementary School Journal, The Reading Teacher, Gifted Childhood Quarterly, and Research in the Teaching of English. She has written several books: Resilient Children, Research-Based Practices in Early Literacy, and Using Your Core Reading Program and Children's Literature K-3 and 4-6. She works in public schools to enhance student learning in literacy and she has mentored teachers seeking National Board Certification. She served as the Editor of Reading Research Quarterly and was a board member of the International Reading Association and the National Reading Conference. She is currently Editor of The Reading Teacher with Marla Mallette.

Dianna Townsend is an Associate Professor of Literacy Studies in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research specializations are in the areas of academic language and adolescent literacy. Her research has been published in The Elementary School Journal, Reading Research Quarterly, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, among others, and focuses on the vocabulary development of English learners as well as the broader construct of academic English. Dr. Townsend teaches classes in content area literacy, adolescent literacy, and literacy foundations and research, and she was formerly a secondary English teacher. Her doctoral work included research on the early identification of ELLs with reading difficulties and the development and experimental evaluation of an after-school vocabulary development intervention for middle-school English Learners. Her current research, which is funded by research grants from UNR, investigates the importance of academic language proficiency for achievement across content areas, as well as best practices for professional development in providing academic language support to struggling readers. Dr. Townsend also conducts extensive outreach to local school districts, providing support to secondary teachers and their students.

As a literacy educator Dr. Salas focuses on the academic literacy needs of English Language Learners (ELLs), the preparation of teachers to work with, and meet the needs of an increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse student population, and issues of race, culture and language in the classroom and in children’s literature. She has more than twenty years of experience working with high poverty, Hispanic, and culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their parents. Her university teaching career began at a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in south Texas and has taken her to universities and schools in North Carolina, California and Nevada. Dr. Salas' current research deals with the sociocultural aspects of language and literacy development, the preparation of teachers to teach in a culturally and linguistically diverse society and on improving literacy instruction provided to English Language Learners (ELLs) and students who are in at-risk conditions. She is also interested in studying the complex relationship between the cognitive and linguistic demands of academic literacy in school and informal educational settings. Dr. Salas is also passionate about science and technology and has been involved in forming and co-coaching a robotics club for elementary school children. Her robotics teams have competed at local First Lego League competitions affording the students immeasurable academic, social, and technical opportunities.

ERICA CHARLES

GRADUATE ASSISTANT Center for Learning & Literacy

Erica Charles is currently a graduate assistant in the Center for Learning & Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno. Having recently completed the Integrated Elementary Teaching program at UNR she is continuing to pursue a M.Ed. in literacy studies. Erica expects to begin her classroom teaching career in Nevada upon completion of her master's degree.

MELISSA BEDFORD

M.Ed. GRADUATE ASSISTANT Reading Buddies Tutoring Program

Melissa Bedford is currently a graduate assistant in the Center for Learning & Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno. Previously she taught in the Washoe County School District and has experience teaching 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade. Melissa received her BA and MEd, both from UNR. She is currently in the 3rd year of her PhD program, where she is focusing on literacy studies. Upon graduating with her doctorate, she plans to teach pre-service teachers different ways to teach literacy.

MARY CZERWINSKY

M.Ed. LITERACY INSTRUCTIONAL ASSISTANT CLL Tutoring Program

Mary Czerwinsky has been a teaching assistant for the Center for Learning and Literacy since Fall of 2013. She has taught first and second grade for ten years at Kate Smith Elementary School, working with a culturally diverse population. Mary has always had a passion for literacy, and focused on literacy studies during her master's degree program at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has also served as a curriculum team leader and trainer for the Washoe County School District Math Department.